America Is an Oligarchy. It Doesn’t Have to Be.
Just three men have more wealth than 160 million Americans. We’re ruled by a rigged system designed to exploit the many for the benefit of the few.
489 Articles by: Luke Savage
Luke Savage is the author of The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History and a writer on Substack.
The Purgatory of Canadian Social Democracy
If Canada’s NDP is to have a future, it needs to rediscover its militancy.
Nancy Pelosi, Which Side Are You On?
Nancy Pelosi and the rest of institutional liberalism has to decide whether they’re on the side of working people or health insurance companies.
The “Affordability” Hustle
Mainstream Democrats love to talk about making things like health care and education more affordable. They should be talking about making them free.
Wow, Another Centrist Maverick
Exciting news: burnt coffee magnate Howard Schultz wants to make an independent run for president. Americans may finally get the common-sense, bipartisan solutions they’ve been yearning for!
Aaron Sorkin’s Road to Nowhere
Aaron Sorkin wants to give Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advice. Yet The West Wing creator’s worldview remains a vision of liberalism at its hollowest and most ineffective.
Who Will Be the American Justin Trudeau?
With a restless Democratic base leaning left, party centrists are looking for their Justin Trudeau — a candidate who will seem progressive while preserving the status quo.
Privatizing Morality
Individual acts of holiday charity by the rich are a hustle. Real altruism is collective.
Liberalism in Theory and Practice
Contemporary liberals are temperamentally conservative — and what they want to conserve is a morally bankrupt political order.
The Nihilism of Moderation
When the survival of the planet is at stake, calls for moderation and compromise aren’t a mark of adult politics — they’re a threat to civilization.
Harry Leslie Smith (1923–2018)
The life of Harry Leslie Smith, a working-class rebel to the end, was a towering monument to socialist compassion, internationalism, and peace.
Wisconsin, Conquered
Republicans could not have conquered the labor stronghold of Wisconsin without the complacency of the Democratic Party.
American Politics Could Use More Conflict
Decrying “tribalism” is a favorite pastime of American elites, but the real problem is the unity among them.
Labour’s Socialist Realism
A new book of essays edited by UK Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell makes the case for economic democracy and charts the increasingly transformative thinking of Corbyn’s Labour Party.
Baby Steps Are Not Enough
Yesterday’s midterms were a rebuke to Trump. But America’s decades-long shift to the right won’t be undone with Democratic Party liberalism.
Bread and Roses for All
More and more people are calling themselves democratic socialists. That’s a very good thing if you care about the cause of human freedom.
Frumocracy
David Frum’s new book promises a searing indictment of Donald Trump. What it delivers is an elite-friendly defense of the rotten system that produced him.
The Hollow Courage of Bill Maher
Throughout his career, Bill Maher has delighted in scolding the powerless.
Twilight of the Technocrats?
Technocratic liberalism prides itself on having no ideology to speak of — which is itself the most dogmatic ideology of them all.
Empire of Sleaze
Trump’s populist image was always a mirage. His administration will be a Trojan horse for lobbyists, Washington insiders, and Wall Street.